Global enterprise software waste today stands at 38%, totaling $28 billion of waste in the US alone, or $247 per user, according to a free, new downloadable study published today by 1E.
Drawing on exclusive data spanning five years, and covering 149 companies, 16 industries and 4.6 million users, the Software Usage and Waste Report 2016 provides unique insight into the enterprise desktop. 

software waste

The report defines waste as a piece of software that has been deployed to a desktop but not used.
The report found that, of the 35 leading applications examined, the following were most prone to waste:

  1. TechSmith Camtasia Studio (waste: 67%)
  2. SAP Crystal Reports (63%)
  3. Adobe InDesign (55%)
  4. Adobe Dreamweaver (55%)
  5. Microsoft Visio (47%)
  6. Adobe Illustrator (47%)
  7. Microsoft Project Professional (46%)
  8. Adobe Photoshop (42%)
  9. Helios TextPad (40%)
  10. Corel WinZip (34%).

“There is huge evidence of software waste across all sectors,” says Buffi Neal, co-author of the report. “The inability of organizations to reduce average waste levels suggests that they remain unaware of the underlying cost-saving opportunities.”
The Software Usage and Waste Report shines a light on what those applications with very high deployment and waste levels cost businesses. For example, Project Professional alone is calculated to be costing the average business of 30,000 machines $381,840.
The new study also analyzes software efficiency by industry. Of the 16 global industries defined, government (28%) boasts the lowest waste, while aviation (47%) and education (47%) have the highest.
“All industries have a need for specialized software,” comments report co-author Peter Beruk. “An accounting firm will have the need for accounting software, while an engineering firm will have a greater need for CAD software. The Software Usage and Waste Report will allow the SAM manager to recognize those applications most unused within their business immediately and develop a remediation plan.”
The 1E Software Usage and Waste Report coincides with the release of 1E’s new Software Intelligence tool, which offers businesses a free snapshot of their own application usage.